


you steal the air out of my lungs

by demauryss



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, also quite dumb, and cats are the biggest wingmen, and oblivious, eliott's along for the ride, flower shop, lucas is a sass queen, soft boyfriends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 18:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20050315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demauryss/pseuds/demauryss
Summary: just when lucas thinks the universe can't hate him more, he gets hit in the face by the biggest problem there ever could be: a pea-sized crush on a person whose name he doesn't even know. (pea-sized, that's what he tells himself.)or, 5 times Lucas bumps into Eliott + 1 time Lucas falls for him.





	you steal the air out of my lungs

**Author's Note:**

> this one's is a direct contrast to my other fic in terms of angst. though it will have its moments, this one's gonna be major fluff guys because i realized i was going pretty heavy on angst with we're falling apart and needed to write something light as well.
> 
> leave a comment or kudos. feedback is always appreciated. 
> 
> title from "don't take the money" by bleachers
> 
> happy reading xx

he meets him on the bus stop when it's raining.

given his timing, his overall lack of good fortune and just his dumb brain, rain started pouring the minute lucas' shift at the corner flower shop ended. the owner, florence, had left already, something about her daughter having a fever. so lucas was left to close the shop while it rained heavily outside, drenching everything in a blanket of a darker hue, and the smell of sand mixed with water wafting in the air.

now lucas can't say he likes rain, he loathes it. it's like god's punishment for those who leave the tap running for long (he has been one of those people) and he absolutely hates the way rain always pours when he's forgotten to bring an umbrella because 'no mika, the clouds don't look that grey. it won't rain and i'll be okay.'

and it always rains when he doesn't expect it to. kind of like life's unpredictability, bringing you the good or bad when you least expect it. and lucas knows it's better for the country and the crops and everything ('rain always makes everything better, don't you think?'), he can't help but feel a distaste when all rain does for him is make his clothes cling to his body in the most uncomfortable way and have him shivering from head to toe.

so he runs in ice cold water - _walks_ fast would be the correct choice of words since his legs go numb from cold - as water hits his hair drop after drop. the walk to the bus stop isn't a long one, but lucas still finds him missing the warmth of the flower shop with arrays of freshly made carnations and bright displays of flowers which surround him.

after excruciating ten minutes, he finally spots the bus stop which is thankfully not crowded with people despite raining that hard. lucas quickens his pace, forcing his numb legs to work, feeling the water sweep under his clothes and over his body. he heaves a sigh when he comes into the shelter of the roof over him, and quickly takes off his scarf, ringing it off of excess water.

but universe doesn't like him when he's happy, lucas decides, because at that moment a car comes rushing past him in full speed, tyres skidding against the pavement where rain water stands, splashing him with it in the process.

lucas finds another reason to hate rain.

muttering curses under his breath, he ignores the stares of the people around him, leaning on the pole and wrapping arms around his body to conserve as much heat as he can.

a cat drenched like him comes to stand by him, and lucas can't differentiate between the both of them. he jumps when the cat leans against his leg, causing him to bump into the person standing beside him, quite harshly.

"i'm sorry," he starts, turning his neck to look at the person he just bumped into. sea green eyes greet him, looking quite apologetic as well. ridiculously high cheekbones curves into a heartwarming smile, and for a moment lucas forgets that he's drenched completely and feels just as cold.

"it's okay," the person says, voice reminding lucas of hot blankets and dry clothes, which don't feel as uncomfortable as the ones lucas is wearing.

the cat purrs against lucas' lower limbs, turning their attention towards it. it nuzzles its face on lucas' jean clad legs and lucas can't help but smile, not forgetting the person standing next to him as much as he'd like to. lucas feels his face and neck getting warm and an instant rush of fast-beating heart and twisting stomach takes him under its wing. confusion pulls at his brain, mind fogging up and ears throbbing with the beat of his heart.

"maybe she's looking for some warmth," the guy whispers slowly, as if he's afraid of speaking too loud and startle the cat or, god forbid, lucas. _that sounds stupid_, lucas thinks, and quickly erases the thought from his head. he barely knows that guy, and that guy barely knows lucas. they just bumped into each other mere seconds ago.

lucas feels his idiotic heart arguing with his somewhat sensible brain.

_i'm not the person to be seeking out warmth from_, lucas wants to say, because he's the human version of cold. his feet remain as cold as icicles even under a blanket and take years to reach normal temperature. and his hands, don't even think about them ever being at an acceptable temperature.

lucas isn't stupid, he tells himself, because he realizes those aren't the things you should be telling someone you just met - nay, bumped into - so he just nods quietly, ignoring the way his heart beats like tambourine.

in a moment of pure dumbness, lucas realizes he doesn't want to stop talking to this person who makes his cold disappears, but before he can open his mouth to formulate any other thing, the bus arrives. bodies push past lucas, swallowing the other person's somewhere along the way.

lucas feels sad for some reason. he didn’t even get to know that guy’s name. the cat nudges her face against his legs. maybe that guy was right. maybe she did want some warmth. forgetting the bus and forcing the guy out of his mind (despite the protests it makes) lucas bends over and picks up the kitten in his arms, who immediately nuzzles her face in the crook of his elbow.

lucas pats the cat’s fur, her soft purrs filling the air. the bus seems to have left long ago, and lucas seems to have developed frozen legs and a shivering body. the rain doesn’t look like it has any plans of stopping, ever, so lucas sighs and perches himself on the rock hard bench, the kitten wrapped in his scarf and sleeping quietly, seeming to crave warmth more than him.

lucas sighs. guess that guy will never know.

\---

when lucas reaches the flatshare, mika almost dies of excitation upon seeing the little ball of fur wrapped in lucas’ scarf.

“sunshine!” he squeals, practically snatching the poor thing out of lucas’ hands, "who knew you could be so useful?”

lucas mock glares, flopping down on the couch and taking off his wet jacket and socks, goosebumps rising on his arms when cold air hit the area. “when have i been anything but useful?”

and mika mutters something, resuming his talking to the cat in a squeaky, baby like voice which would have made lucas’ ears bleed if it were any other day. but today, lucas was quite happy.

the kitten meows, voice reduced to a quiet murmur because of mika’s chest and cuddling him in an adorable way. mika coos softly, looking at lucas like he hung all the stars in the sky, “where did you find this gem?”

“the bus stop,” lucas answers, heart rate picking up and hands getting clammy when he recalls how _this gem_ literally led him to come to face with the most gorgeous person he’s ever seen. “it was raining quite hard and she probably came to find shelter and i couldn’t leave her there and brought her home.”

mika sighs happily, “that might be the best decision you’ve ever made in your life.”

“i beg to differ.” lucas starts, stretching the wet shirt away from his body, “what about the time when i got you to meet elijah? or the time when i decided to go to that party last month, leaving you alone and you said you had the best s-“ lucas is forced to stop mid sentence when a loud screech makes him literally jump in his position, scaring mika as well as the cat, who burrows in mika’s chest.

“what the actual fuck!” lucas shouts, hand on his chest where his heart is doing its best to hump out. he turns his head and finds lisa plastered against the wall, mouth open in shock and eyes wide in horror.

“what is that thing?” she splutters out, voice shaky and finger pointing at the kitten wrapped up in mika’s arms.

“this? a cat lucas found and brought home. you aren’t scared, are you?”

with each word, mika’s smile gets scarier. lucas sits, amused, as mika slowly gets up and moves towards lisa with the cat, who starts taking steps backwards. “get that thing away from me mika!”

“but look at it!” mika coos again, “it’s so small and soft and adorable.”

and mika is running after lisa, shouting “i’ll love you forever for this, lulu!” lucas laughs, heart lightening and stomach filling up with bubbles. at least one good thing came out of the rain today, lucas smiles.

one, and another.

\---

a week later lucas decides kindness is his biggest weakness, despite whatever bullshit mika feeds him about having a heart of gold. he knows mika is just flattering him because during that week lucas has found that mika loves annoying lisa more than he loves the kitten lucas brought home, now named lucky by the one and only mika. ever since then, mika has been over the moon because a) he really loves lucky and b) he found that lisa was really, really afraid of her.

and other than that, the responsibility of taking care of lucky is divided between the two, which lucas thinks is fair because he might be the one who brought her home but she’s been attached to mika’s side ever since then. and it’s not her who chose to do that; mika hasn’t let her go since the minute she arrived.

it’s kind of cute, seeing mika being so protective of lucky, and using her to get back at lisa whenever he deems necessary. lucas can’t say he doesn’t feel bad whenever lisa’s screams echo in the flat or whenever she gets so scared she nearly starts crying but later lisa’s passive aggressive comments directed straight at lucas and the glares she passes him whenever they cross paths almost makes it worth it to bring lucky home.

but along with the entertainment which follows with lucky’s arrival, comes the great responsibility of making sure lucky is well-fed and rested. and it includes taking her to walks as well as taking care of her bathroom habits (lucas can’t tell you the amount of times he’s walked lucky outside in the dead of the night to do her business).

last week was kind of a blur. with the wedding season coming with the arrival of march, lucas had been quite busy at the flower shop. he worked while mika took care of lucky. the work should have taken his mind off of everything. but still certain thoughts kept nagging him, refusing to leave the comfortable niche they had made inside lucas’ mind.

it’s monday, and lucas spent the weekend locked up in his room because he had nothing better to do. he considered inviting the guys over, but that would entail booze and lots of gossip and lucas knew somewhere in between, under the heavy influence of alcohol, he would spit out all the details about the guy he bumped into a few days ago, and how he hasn’t been able to get him out of his mind.

it’s a pretty lazy day, an order coming about every hour or so. lucas sits behind the counter, completing an essay on speciation he has decided to put off till the last minute. no word he had scribbled up till now made any ounce of sense to him, but completing the essay at least meant getting something done. lucas figures he can later bribe imane to edit his essay with those quiches she loves so much.

he’s scribbling down something about sympatric speciation when he hears the bell above the door ring, announcing the arrival of a customer. lucas gives it a minute before he gets up, dusting his pants off. the customer’s turned away from him, looking at the bunch of carnations set up by the window. being the dumb he is, lucas doesn’t consider how it will look when someone suddenly appears right behind you seemingly out of nowhere.

but he finds out soon enough.

“hi. what are you looking for?”

the guy turns back abruptly, probably miscalculating lucas’ distance from him. and in a minute of pure glory, lucas ends up crashing his face into a rock hard chest, pain shooting up his nose.

“ow!”

the screech leaves lucas’ mouth in an instant. he closes his eyes, rubbing at his nose as pain shoots through the cartilage. he hears a sharp intake of breath from the other side, but he’s too engrossed in rubbing his nose to make anything of it.

“we gotta stop meeting like this.” lucas freezes, hands stopping almost suddenly as the fruity soft voice fills his ears. he would recognize that voice anywhere, anytime, despite having it heard only once before. but the point is, lucas will be able to pick up the voice anytime from the mixture of happy notes and music; lucas will easily pick out that voice from any crowd, or hear it distinctively clear in any concert or a festival, where the jumble of voices is loud enough to make his eardrums burst. because damn if the voice hasn’t been on lucas’ mind since last week.

“hi,” the guy from the bus stop smiles, eyes giving the flowers light and making them sing happily, lucas swears he hasn’t seen the flowers look so radiant, ever. his eyes have transformed into slits from the way he's smiling and lucas didn't know they could look so good. crinkles form around them, and sweat gathers on lucas' palms which he tries to wipe on the back of his jeans without drawing attention. feeling his face burn from part humiliation and part he doesn’t know what, lucas clears his throat which seemed to have dried up with needles sticking out from his voice box.

“hi,” lucas’ voice feels scratchy, palms sweating and heart burning, “what can i help you with?”

the guy hums, looking at the carnations in front of them. he asks lucas for pink and white carnations, and lucas obliges quietly, florence’s voice echoing in a far part of his brain: pink carnations symbolize admiration and white symbolizes pure love and good luck. lucas hands the bunch to the guy and tells the total, his heart beating rapidly all the while. the guy hands lucas the money, turning to leave before smiling brightly.

“bye.”

lucas waves weakly, tongue frozen in a sentence he cannot get out for some reason. he watches his receding figure, stomach twisting painfully. lucas sighs, going over to the essay he left, now forgetting the line he was trying to write.

there will come a time when lucas will know that guy’s name, but till then he’ll happily be ‘the guy from the bus stop’ to lucas, and, if the guy thinks about lucas just as much as he thinks about him, then maybe, just maybe, lucas will probably be more than just the guy he bumped into at the bus stop or the guy who sold him flowers.

yeah, lucas thinks, picking up his phone. this one is going to be fun telling yann.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi to me on tumblr [@ho1ogram](https://ho1ogram.tumblr.com)


End file.
